BJP's CT Ravi Dares Congress To Announce DK Shivakumar As Karnataka Chief Minister Candidate

As the election campaign in Karnataka heats up, the Bharatiya Janata Party's General Secretary, CT Ravi, has upped his ante against the Congress over their view on the reservation given to the Vokkaliga and the Lingayat communities, even as the Congress leaders, particularly Siddaramiah and DK Shivakumar, make their chief ministerial ambitions clear.  

Only the BJP has given both "dignity and representation" to the Vokkaliga community, while the Congress, by opposing the recent move of the state government to increase the reservation for them, was trying to mislead the community members through its promises, Ravi told BQ Prime in an interview.

The BJP's Hindu card—a mix of nationalism and hindutva—combined with the PM Narendra Modi model of development will triumph over the Congress's AHINDA (an acronym for minorities, Dalits, and OBCs) strategy, which Ravi alleged was only a ploy to divide castes.

"We believe in national interest and taking everyone along," he said. Former chief minister and Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa was very much an important part of the party's campaign and was guiding the party, and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had attempted the difficult task of giving internal reservation, which will benefit the poor, Ravi said. "Our strategy is focusing on micro-issues and also Modiji's vision for the state and country," the four-term MLA from Chikkamagalur, who was in Delhi for the central election committee's meeting to finalise tickets for Karnataka polls, said.

Lashing out at Congress leader DK Shivakumar, who is the Vokkaliga face of the party, for saying that Lingayats and Vokkaliga were not beggars for the government to give them the 4% taken from Muslims, Ravi said that the congress leader must first apologise for inferring that those who take up reservations are beggars. Among the two politically influential groups in poll-bound Karnataka, apart from the Lingayats, the Vokkaligas form about 14% of the state.

"Be it Vokkaliga icons Kempegowda or Kuvempu, we got statutes made and got them a place in the syllabus. Members of the community such as me, Ashwathnarayan, and others, got opportunities and leadership roles in the BJP. But no one is clear under whose leadership the Congress is fighting. In 1999, Vokkaligas voted for them when SM Krishna was announced as the chief minister. But today, under whose leadership is the Congress fighting. If the Congress is really concerned about the Vokkaliga community, why can't they announce DK Shivakumar's name as the chief minister candidate?" he said.

The BJP was not bothered by the claims that the Congress is winning Karnataka, Ravi said. "They do this every time before elections so that they can cry about EVMs after the results. One must not forget that DK Shivakumar rushed to the Goa elections last year, when the BJP had already won a conclusive majority. The people of Karnataka will vote for Modiji, like they did in UP, Goa, and Uttarakhand," he said.

Congress's guarantees of 200 free units of electricity, free rice, and income support for women and unemployed youth will not work in Karnataka because the party is facing a trust deficit with voters, Ravi said. "There is a fight not just for the chief minister's face but also on every seat among Congress functionaries across the state. The party needs to sort its own mess before claiming to bring changes. The state has earlier suffered because of this kind of infighting in the Congress, which is why it rejected the party," he said.

The JD(S) today has reduced itself to a family party centering around the politics of the family and added that while former prime minister and JD(S) patriarch HD Devegowda was a respected veteran leader, he said, "everyone knows his son and former Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy ran the 13-month government from a luxurious room in a five-star hotel, while people in the state suffered."

Recently, the JD(S), which has already lost a few of its leaders to other parties, is locked in a family battle with Devegowda's sons HD Revanna and HD Kumaraswamy disagreeing over the former's wife Bhavani wanting to fight from the family bastion of Hassan, Ravi said.

"In Hassan, we are already strong," he said. "The BJP already made inroads there in 2018 and has an MLA Pritam Gowda, and across Old Mysuru in 2019, the BJP did well. Now we are expecting four more seats. In Belur and Arkalgud also, we will do well. This time, we are convinced the BJP will increase its vote share and its seats. We have also taken four yatras in every assembly constituency, and we only saw the sentiment of pro-incumbency," Ravi said.